Hear what our partners have to say about Corvus and the current risk environment.
[Graham Brooks - Partner, 406 Ventures] InsurTech space, in general, has just been a very hot area over the last couple of years, and it really is because it's a gigantic industry that really hasn't seen a ton of technology transformation. And so you see a lot of people that either buy insurance for themselves or have bought it for their companies, realizing or thinking, oh, there's got to be a better way, and jumping in.
The big issue here is that often these entrepreneurs are technologists who have some exposure to how the "insurance is what?" They think that there's a better way, but they really don't understand the mechanics, the whole value chain with insurance, and what they're trying to accomplish. And that's why having someone with Phil's depth of experience, and knowledge, and network was incredibly important.
[Philip Edmundson - CEO & Founder, Corvus Insurance] I've had the opportunity to run other commercial insurance businesses that focused on the technology industries. So throughout my career, I've had one foot in insurance and one foot in technology. We all know that our lives are becoming increasingly digital and our businesses are too. And the opportunities that Corvus has identified and acted upon are really just the beginning.
There is going to be so much more importance attached to cyber insurance and the risks associated with our digital activities as it becomes more and more effective in our lives. We use these digital tools because we love them, but they bring about a whole new set of risks.
[Graham Brooks - Partner, 406 Ventures] We tend to invest a lot in a couple of different areas, so we've done a lot in the data, and analytics, and artificial intelligence space, and that's how we think about Corvus. And a lot of the AI that's being done today, we're looking at sort of new companies called applied AI, or how you take artificial intelligence and apply it to real business problems to solve them or automate them, or reduce cost and increase revenue, etc.
And when we look at that, there's sort of two different ways, you can do it. You can create a new software company that sells a platform out to existing players in the industry. Or if you have something that's really special and really protected, you can actually go create a company from the ground up and compete in that industry. And that's where the real opportunity is. We were really gravitated to that strategy here for Corvus.